Providing the best customer service possible might seem like a tough challenge to take on, but it’s always worth it if you want to grow and retain customers. Implementing different methods of customer service also means you have to consider your service on them all. For instance, if you have omnichannel customer service, then you need to ensure you’re doing your best on there as well as over the phone. However, there is actually a thin line between good and bad customer service, and the difference might not be as obvious as you think. Keep reading to find out more…
Response Times
Your response times are crucial when it comes to providing good or bad service. The best thing to do is offer a set SLA that you always strive to achieve. You don’t want to make it impossible to reach, but you also don’t want it to be so long that customers will be unhappy. Confirming an agreed response time will set their expectations and allow them to understand that you’re working on their request within a timely manner. You might think that setting a fast response time will mean you’re giving good service, but in fact, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Advising customers of a SLA that you can’t meet will not only cause you stress, but it will increase your volume of contact as customers will be chasing you once you don’t meet the SLA. Don’t be afraid to give yourselves a slightly longer response time and you’ll definitely provide a better service to your customers.
Use Of Initiative
Good customer service is more than just being polite and solving a query. To take it to the next level, you need to use your initiative and think about the bigger picture. If your customers are consistently contacting you about the same issue, then something needs to be done instead of resolving it when it arises. If you simply do the bare minimum, you can quickly slip into providing bad service. Taking charge of the situation not only prevents it from happening again, but it also shows your customer that you’re dedicated to resolving it. The difference between good and bad service when it comes to your initiative is quite simple. Bad looks like doing as little as possible to resolve the situation and leaving the customer unsatisfied. However, good service looks like taking ownership of the situation and thinking of other ways you can help.
Availability
Your availability can play quite a big role into whether or not you provide good or bad customer service. If you’re only open weekdays between standard office hours, your customers may find it impossible to contact you. This in turn leads them to think poorly of you as the service you do offer, they can’t even access. That isn’t to say you have to be available 24/7 but extending your hours can really make a difference. Try opening an hour earlier and closing an hour or two later. Your customers will thank you for it and you’ll cut down on a lot of unhappy complaints about your lack of availability. With an increased number of contactable hours, your customer service will definitely improve and go from average to excellent.
Personalisation
If you think about the worst customer service that you’ve experienced, it probably made you feel like a number and not an individual person, as if your concerns weren’t actually listened to. You want to do your best to avoid this at all costs if you want to provide good customer service. Be sure to use the customer’s name when speaking to them and empathise with them when things haven’t gone quite right. Adding a personal touch to your service will help each customer feel appreciated and valued, instead of feeling as though they’re just another call in the queue. You want your customers to feel like they can contact you no matter what and know that they’ll be treated fairly. This is what makes great service.
Approach To Complaints
No matter how good you try and be, there will always be complaints at some point. It’s all about how you deal with them that matters and determines whether or not your service is good or bad. With a complaint, you need to make sure that you take ownership and admit when things are your fault. Customers want their frustration to be understood, so be sure to empathise and show that you care. You then need to show them that you’re not only able to resolve it but taking steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. You don’t have to be ignoring complaints or taking too long to resolve them to provide bad service. Something as simple as not taking ownership or admitting when you did something wrong can taint the whole situation and put a negative spin on any further service you provide. So, make sure you always work with the customer rather than against them when it comes to complaints, and you’ll soon see how much better your service is for it.
There’s no one way to provide good customer service, as everyone’s customers will be different. However, there are rules of what not to do, so you want to avoid doing anything that could go against them as much as you can. Before long, you’ll soon see that providing good customer service is easy and it’s not hard to maintain it either!